Electric and hybrid vehicles that are powered either fully or in part by electricity and are becoming increasingly popular. The increased popularity is due in part to rising prices of fossil fuels, as well as to the environmental concerns of fossil fuel emissions and their contribution to air pollution and to the greenhouse effect. In parallel, manufacturers of such electric and hybrid vehicles continue to improve the vehicles' performance and reliability.
The growing number of electric vehicles in traffic creates new and potential risks to the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, runners, children, pets, wildlife, and other vehicle operators. Such pedestrians and others are often used to hearing the presence or approach of a vehicle, and will often expect such audible cues when approaching a road or driveway. As the sound generated by engines of electric vehicles generate is almost inaudible, pedestrians and other users of the road cannot audibly detect the approach or presence of an electric vehicle.
When the pedestrian is blind or vision impaired, the dependence of audible clues to the presence of a vehicle is increased. The lack of audibility of an approaching electric vehicle could prove disastrous.
The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 mandates the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate a motor vehicle safety standard “establishing performance requirements for an alert sound that allows blind and other pedestrians to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle . . . and . . . requiring new electric or hybrid vehicles to provide an alert sound conforming to the requirements of the motor vehicle safety standard established.” In order to determine the standard, the Secretary is instructed to “determine the minimum level of sound emitted from a motor vehicle that is necessary to provide blind and other pedestrians with the information needed to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle” and to “determine the performance requirements for an alert sound that is recognizable to a pedestrian as a motor vehicle in operation.”